Cat Stevens

Cat Stevens Bio

Cat Stevens, born Steven Demetre Georgiou (July 21, 1948), also known as Yusuf Islam is a British singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. Born in London, England, at the age of 18, Stevens was signed to Decca Records to release his first album, ‘Matthew and Son’ in 1967. The album reached the Top 10 in the UK and the single off the album, ‘Matthew and Son’ hit number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. His following albums ‘Tea for Tillerman’ in 1970 and ‘Teaser and the Firecat’ in 1971 became certified triple platinum by the RIAA in the U.S. His next album release ‘Catch Bull At Four’ also received high acclaim as Stevens received two ASCAP songwriting awards for his single off the album, ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ in both 2005 and 2006. After the release of his 1975 album, ‘Iztiso’, which also became gold, Stevens converted to Islam in 1977 and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. Due to his conversion, he stalled his music career to devote himself to philanthropic causes within the Muslim community. Stevens made his return in 2006 where he switched over to pop music released album, ‘An Other Cup’. In 2007, Stevens received the award for Mediterranean Prize for Peace and an ECHO award. In 2014, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Currently 71 years old, Cat Stevens’ most recent album release, ‘The Laughing Apple’ was released in 2017 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.